Re: SD2 - Structured Attributes:

Robin, I think that there is theoetical benefit to make philosophic 
distinctions between objects and attributes, but the practical benefit is
probably quite small. I suspect that this is the reason that SGML has been
dodging this issue for so long.  The practical benefit proposed (backwards
compatibility of DTDs) is not really there in many (most?) cases. 

A few other misc. notes:

#1. The grove model of attributed graphs does not prohibit "properties" from
having trees as values. In fact a nodes children are always specified through
a property. That may or may not be relevant in this discussion.

#2. You can simulate tree-valued attributes without implying containment 
through ID/IDREF or even ENTITY attributes.

 Paul Prescod

Received on Friday, 16 May 1997 14:25:42 UTC